Blue Hill Maritime Heritage Festival

Mission Statement: To celebrate and preserve the significance of Blue Hill Bay to our history, economy and culture

This festival will take place on August 3rd at Blue Hill, Maine’s historic village waterfront. Various activities will be occurring throughout the day, such as boat building demonstrations, oar carving, traditional boats on display, kiosks of organizations supporting or involved with Blue Hill Bay. On the water there will be more boats, demonstrations, many offering rides. Musicians will be adding to the maritime atmosphere with sea shanties and fiddle tunes. The Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association will be hosting and cosponsoring. bhmhf.org

The Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association is proud to host and help sponsor the Festival. The Blue Hill Maritime Heritage Festival is scheduled for Saturday, August 5, 2023. We are planning a fun summer day by the bay, with a lot of maritime and historical related activities: boats, and boat building demonstrations, art on the lawn, sea shanties, seafood and more. If you’d like to participate, sponsor or volunteer let us know. Come join us for that fun summer day by the bay.

If you have a business or belong to an organization that would like to participate please fill out and submit: Exhibitor Contract(PDF) The Town of Blue Hill considers anyone not in a building to be a mobile vendor and therefore requires a permit if selling merchandise on town property. We will forward a permit application once your Exhibitor Contract is accepted.

Festival Content: Content should relate to Blue Hill Peninsula’s maritime heritage, Blue Hill Bay and it’s ecology.

There is no admission fee for the Festival. Donations to help fund the Festival will be accepted and appreciated. Contact [email protected] if you’re interested in making a tax deductible contribute to help support the Festival.

The Festival will be held in Blue Hill’s historic village, centered on the scenic waterfront. Various activities will be occurring throughout the day, such as boat building demonstrations, wood carving, traditional boats on display, kiosks of organizations supporting or involved with the bay. On the water there will be more boats, many offering rides. Musicians will be adding to the maritime atmosphere with sea shanties and fiddle tunes.

Festival activities start on Water Street, at the Blue Hill Historical Society’s Holt House. They will have ship captain’s artifacts on display along with other items depicting Blue Hill’s history. Across the street from the Holt House, Charlie the shark will be directing folks to the Shaw Institute. They will have their new touch tank, displays and docents explaining their environmental work and offering a microscopic look into the waters of our bay.

At the historic Pendleton House, PNB Interior Design/Arts will have nautical block print art, on paper, on kids tee shirts, and more. While next door at Bears n’ Me Captain Lee and Windrose Productions will have nautical books and DVD’s.

SeaLoft is across the street featuring women’s apparel, home goods, and gifts for all.

At the Town Wharf, The Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association will have boats on display and in the water, many offering rides. Hewes & Co. Marine Division will be explaining their CNC business, Wilson Museum with their rope making machine and very popular toy boats and pool, and Maine Maritime Academy will be under the tent. On the wharf Chase Small Craft, Brooks Boat Design, George Stevens Academy, and Cottrell Boatbuilding will also be joining us this year.

Emerson Park, adjacent to the Town Wharf, will be packed full of exhibitors. Penobscot Marine Museum will be returning bringing their popular photo booth.

Boats Partial list, check back for updates. On display (D) available for rides (R) sail (S)

St Ayles Skiff – Blue Hill Community Rowing, R
North Haven Peapod TSCA, R
Nutshell Pram, TSCA, R
Shellback Dingy, TSCA, R
Stelmok 15′ solo canoe, TSCA, R
Deblois Street Sailing and Rowing Dory, TSCA, R, S
Compass Skiff 10, CSC, D, R
Echo Bay Dory Skiff, CSC, D, R
Points East Pram, CSC, D, R
Acorn 17, DSC, D
Drake 17, TSCA, D

Harry Bryan Thistle Fin Boat, TSCA, Peddle
CLC Chester Yawl 15, TSCA, D
Caledonia Yawl 19, TSCA, D

MUSIC – We have a great line up of musicians scheduled to play at “The Window of the Sea Wind” sculpture by Hitoshi Tanaka in Emerson Park.

10:00 AM – Waterbound

11:00 AM – April Grant

12 PM – Handsome Molly

1 PM -Stephen Sanfilippo

2 PM – Castlebay

3 PM – Calico

FOOD – Stone Fox Farm Creamery – Homemade ice cream

There will be water available donated by Mt Desert Spring Water

SPEAKER SERIES – Blue Hill Historical Society in conjunction with the Maritime Heritage Festival will present a series of talks at the Blue Hill Public Library and at Bagaduce Music.